South, East, or West Caribbean?

[april47]

I live close to the port of Galveston but am not impressed with the cruise itineraries offered. Is it worth while to drive from Houston to Tampa or Ft. Lauderdale to get different cruiselines and a different itinerary? Are any of the Eastern and Southern islands unlike the too touristy Cozumel? I would really like to avoid flying, even if it meant a 2 day drive alone.

[cruiseapril]

Hi- We have been on 2 Southern Caribbean 10 day cruises

(from Ft. L.)and enjoyed the ports.

 

Our cruise on Princess went to: Curacao, Isla Margarita, Barbados,

Dominica, St. Thomas, and Princess Cays.

 

Our cruise on HAL went to: St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Martinique, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay.

 

The only very touristy port was St. Thomas- but we always do an excursion to the beach there.

 

Which cruise lines will you be considering?

[jennmaybe]

Absolutely!! Except if I didn't want to fly, I'd be hopping on a Greyhound. There is no way I would spend 2 days sitting in a car driving.......that would wear me out! :)

 

The S. Caribbean is the best! There are lots of islands to choose from.

 

Do you have a preference in cruise line? You could start with that and then determine which itinerary you would want. You can't go wrong with the S. Caribbean.

[Putterdude]

We have done the east and west Caribbean and think the south Caribbean is a much nicer itinerary, on many of the islands you are entering a completely different culture.

[lcmslady]

Have done all 3 - Southern more than the others.

 

I know you said you didn't want to fly but If you would consider flying to San Juan, you can get much farther south than you can out of Florida.

 

Most of these islands are not touristy and are truly beautiful!

[navybankerteacher]

Southern Caribbean has probably best ports, then Eastern. I can't think why anyone would want to see Cozumel or Belize a second time.

[olemissreb]

DH and I have done Eastern, Western and Southern (twice) - I guess that gives you a hint about my preferences.

 

We've set sail both times from San Juan. The last time we flew in a day early and stayed an extra day and it was so nice to be able to see more of Old San Juan than we did on our Eastern cruise. I just love that the Southern Caribbean islands don't feel as "generic" as the St. Thomas's and Cozumel's out there.

[cruiseapril]

Many of the cruise lines are doing the deep Southern itineraries from Fort Lauderdale now.

 

Holland America's Noordam and the Emerald Princess are going to Aruba and Curacao from Ft. L., as are several other ships.